What was your first “expensive” knife?

I had used a SOG Flash II for about 10 years when it disappeared. I went through a dozen various knives looking for a replacement, but none of those were as good as the Flash II. Then in 2020, the owner of the local farm store showed me a Benchmade Casbah 4400BK auto with S30V, which turned out to be better than the Flash II in most respects. At $170, it seemed expensive. I still carry it sometimes when I'm out and about, but the button is sensitive to hay dust, so it is no good for farm work. Later I got an AFO II, which does not mind hay dust. It was considerably more expensive at $230, but the 154CM steel was disappointing. A few dozen knives later, I'm mostly using knives in the $50 to $130 range, with brightly colored handles to make them easy to find when dropped. I find that knives over $200 are rarely worth the money.
 
As a teenager, I bought a Buck 110. I still have it, and have hardly used it.

When my son was a scout, he wanted a PM3 lightweight, but his dream knives were a ZT0450 and Benchmade 940. I thought, I will get a 940-1 and then never need another knife. ..... 🤣

It's still one of my most expensive knives.
 
vjb.knife said:
In the early 1980's I bought this Randall 1-7 and it was something like $200, which was pretty expensive at that time. In 1984 I bought one of these Lile Sly II knives for about $685 new from Lile, and that was a lot of money at the time.

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Other people on this thread are like... "A $1 Imperial. I got paid in wooden nickles so that was a lot at the time!" or at least like "Oh, a $60 Kershaw, wasn't used to spending that much on a knife!" ...

and here you are "$625 in 40-years-ago money. Yeah, it weas a lot back then". What's a lot now, then, my friend? You sound like one prosperous individual 🤣
It is a beautiful knife, I love the single-billet hollow knives, but it was just funny, the way you put it, haha.
 
I think the first more expensive/not cheap knife I bought was a KA BAR USMC. Probably around the mid 1990's it was about $65-75. I thought it was one of the coolest knives at the time(still do really). But still thought the price was fair.

The first expensive knife to shock me with the price I bought anyway was the ZT0560bw at $210. That was at a price beyond of what I considered reasonable at the time, but also opened my eyes up to why people might spend more on expensive things and what that can get you.
 
Hashishiin said:
Other people on this thread are like... "A $1 Imperial. I got paid in wooden nickles so that was a lot at the time!" or at least like "Oh, a $60 Kershaw, wasn't used to spending that much on a knife!" ...

and here you are "$625 in 40-years-ago money. Yeah, it weas a lot back then". What's a lot now, then, my friend? You sound like one prosperous individual 🤣
It is a beautiful knife, I love the single-billet hollow knives, but it was just funny, the way you put it, haha.
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Well, my situation at the time was that I had been working as a commercial diver for a number of years, quit to get an Engineering degree and then I was working in the Nuclear power industry all of which paid pretty well. But, up until that point I had probably not spent more than $50 on a knife, so this was a fairly big change. I am certainly not rich but I do live in Hawaii working as a Diver and an Engineer and now, a big purchase for me is something like this.
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And I still have an Imperial knife.

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I have several knives in the $150-$200 range. Recently picked up a Manix2 in Maxamet. Never thought I would buy a knife that cost nearly $250. But I saw it at a local sporting goods store and had to have it. Mainly because of the Maxamet.
 
afishhunter said:
That I bought with my paper route money and lawn mowing money when I was a kid?
I forget. Maybe a Schrade or Old Timer, or Camillus stockman, or Western L66?
Regardless, it is long gone.

As an adult? The 2018 Blade Forums 301, at call it "$80" was the most expensive knife I'd ever bought up to that time.
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That's similar to my story.

Mowed lawns and dug dandelions and saved up for a Buck 119 in the 80's.

It was 50 bucks, and that was equivalent to mowing almost 9 lawns. That was a big investment for me back then.

It is pretty neat to see that 119 can still be purchased for that amount. And the one I have is still going strong.
 
vjb.knife said:
Well, my situation at the time was that I had been working as a commercial diver for a number of years, quit to get an Engineering degree and then I was working in the Nuclear power industry all of which paid pretty well. But, up until that point I had probably not spent more than $50 on a knife, so this was a fairly big change. I am certainly not rich but I do live in Hawaii working as a Diver and an Engineer and now, a big purchase for me is something like this.
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And I still have an Imperial knife.

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Beautiful lineup there. I love the wood handle and finish on the Rockstead tie in the Rolex and the Korth!
 
Boker 4021 like this one was the first knife I broke $100 on. It was $110 in 1995 bucks, bought right around my birthday. I remember the combo of birthday money and teenage savings gave me enough to buy the knife, McDonalds, and carfare home. Still like the knife -
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